While preclinical oncology studies aim to mimic human diseases in an animal setting, the greatest challenge researchers face is the translatability of the results. An ideal preclinical tumor model would not only employ the specific cancer subtype but would also simulate the complex microenvironment required for tumorigenesis.  

Currently there are no targeted therapies specific for brain metastases, and the blood-brain barrier can pose a physiologic impediment to many cytotoxic drugs and antibody-based therapies.

Transcriptomic profiling can be used to examine the interaction between the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the immune system and is a powerful tool to investigate the mechanistic action of immunotherapies.

Pancreatic cancer is the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer and ranks as one of the deadliest with the lowest 5-year survival rate of 5-8%.^[1,2,3] This year alone, the American Cancer Society estimates that 56,770 people will be diagnosed with the disease of which more than 45,750 people may not survive.

For the last 15 years, patients diagnosed with advanced stage pancreatic cancer are given gemcitabine (Gemzar®) as the standard first line treatment.

Because lung cancer is so prevalent, there are numerous opportunities for new human lines to be acquired and characterized. Scientists have become highly skilled in distinguishing the mutations that drive increased proliferation from those that suppress tumor growth. This information is key to developing novel therapies to treat lung cancer.

Multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) is an assay that utilizes the basic concept of single antigen staining to detect multiple markers at one time.

Use of CAR T Cell Therapy for B-cell ALL

One such treatment option for B-cell ALL is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy directed against the CD19 protein.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) making up about 85% of all lung cancer cases. With the identification of particular tyrosine kinase mutations, such as EGFR and ALK, targeted therapies shifted the paradigm of drug discovery for NSCLC.

In an effort to more effectively evaluate treatments preclinically, Labcorp offers a human AML model, MV(4;11) (FUW-Luc-mCherry-puro), that has been modified to include both luciferase and mCherry reporter constructs.  Through expression of luciferase, bioluminescent imaging (BLI) can be used to quantitatively measure and track in vivo